What do you do with anger.
Sweetleaf
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Joined: 6 Jan 2011
Age: 36
Gender: Female
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Location: Somewhere in Colorado
So yeah I have a bit of a problem.....for most of my life I have gotten upset over things and such, but I never really experianced normal anger. But it seems like I have recently developed this emotion but I don't know how to deal with it or control it. I mean its like something minor will make me a little mad and I am not used to feeling like that so I end up hitting or kicking things to let it out. It just kind of concerns me I mean today I got into a bit of an argument with my brother because I was kind of nagging him and he thought I was trying to insult him so he got pissed off and well these things happen....but I ended up feeling so angry I hit a metal screen type bus stop shelter and ended up getting deep cuts on my knuckles. So yeah I feel kind of stupid for having no clue about a fairly normal emotion but it really is a bit of a problem.
That is an excellent question..... that I have no clue how to answer. They should teach that in schools or something. I usually just wait til it fades, but then the next time I get mad, there's the previous incident and the new one pissing me off, and it just keeps building until I do something drastic like kick a hole in the wall
Occasionally I turn it back on myself and I bang my head on the wall for 15 minutes or scratch my arms or punch myself. I know that's not the best way to deal with it either, but I don't know what else to do.
Sweetleaf
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Joined: 6 Jan 2011
Age: 36
Gender: Female
Posts: 35,278
Location: Somewhere in Colorado
Yeah that is the dilema I seem to be facing, but yeah I am probably lucky I did not break my hand, but the worst part is it almost felt good, maybe I should try to hit something soft next time the trouble is if there is nothing soft. But yeah its just a kind of scary emotion I guess because when it hits its very hard to control. Also I feel bad because I don't even know what I had to be mad about, yet It was so out of control I did not even think about what I was saying and I ended up snapping at my brother so he got pissed off and then I got even angrier because he was being a jerk back.
When I was in my early teens I remember breaking things in a rage when I was angry, usually my own possessions. Eventually I broke something which, after I calmed down, made me feel very sad. This sounds ridiculous, but it was actualy a cardboard box which housed a keyboard that I loved and played poorly. As I looked at the box, and felt great loss that the box could never be the same again, I resolved to stop allowing myself to be so overcome with anger that I became destructive, before I damaged something more important. I bought a book, Anger: How to Live With and Without It by Albert Ellis, Ph.D., which I think helped me somewhat. I would describe the contents as cognitive behavioural therapy for anger, but I am sorry that I can neither immediately remember nor summarise the solutions, except perhaps anger can come from our belief systems being challenged, ie. possibly a belief that your sibling should not act in the way he does. Such things are difficult, but the book contains quite detailed coping mechanisms.
Sweetleaf
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Joined: 6 Jan 2011
Age: 36
Gender: Female
Posts: 35,278
Location: Somewhere in Colorado
I may try and find that......but yeah the trouble is he was not really acting in any way i don't think he should, I was just frusterated about something and kind of took it out on him. The fact that I don't even know what I was mad about is what really bothers me about it.
When I was a little kid, I used to get mad and punch my computer and video game equipment, but this did not get rid of the anger, it only made me more angry at myself because I was destroying my stuff.
When I was a teenager, I would scream to the pitch of a death metal vocalist, and throw stuff, and then run and hide... but that wasn't very effective either, especially since it would always be very embarressing. Whenever I get an anger outburst around people, I have to be careful to not interact with anyone that will push me to make me angrier, or I may lash out at them in an extreme sense.
I recently found that when I get angry, the anger does not just go away, and it can literally stay there for days, weeks even, and if I even think of any particular incident that made me angry in the past, I would relapse, and become almost as angry as I was when it happened, kinda like Post Traumatic Stress. I have a very hard time letting bad things go. I never forget negative things that happen, even little things.
I found that inflicting pain upon myself actually helps with minimal consequences, such as punching my leg repeatedly, or scratching my arms until they are bloody, or slapping myself, it actually calms me down quite a bit, and literally fights off the anger pretty good... although, the scratches do hurt later and become annoying open wounds, and are kinda embarrassing as well, so scratching doesn't really help me much.
Sometimes, I try doing as many push ups as possible to relieve anger, and this makes me physically stronger in the long run I suppose, but doesn't really make me any less angry, sadly. ![]()
SyphonFilter
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Location: The intersection of Inkopolis’ Plaza & Square where the Turf Wars lie.
If I'm angry at someone, I'll play a violent video game (usually a FPS) and pretend that one of the masked guards is the person I'm angry at. Then I'll pump all my ammo into that guard.
Or sometimes I'll get into a fighting stance, crack my knuckles, punch my knuckles together, do a few punches and uppercuts, then roundhouse kicks. Maybe I'll imitate Hadokens and Shoryukens once and a while for good measure. ![]()
When I was a kid, I had an explosive anger problem at home. Not in public, ever, but only at home where I knew I wouldn't embarrass myself in front of strangers. They used to be these huge meltdowns that would devolve into yelling matches with my parents, and occasional property damage.
As I got older, though I learned to control my anger, to bottle it up, seal it away in my head, so the only thing most people would outwardly notice was a negative vibe coming off me. The repressed anger manifested itself in unhealthy ways, though, mostly in the form of dark, violent thoughts and writing involving people I didn't like as the victims of said violence. When it did come to the surface, though it was in a big way- another yelling match my my parents over something pointless and mundane, but this time without the property damage to go along with it.
Nowadays, I rarely get truly angry, and it's more of just a high-running frustration or irritation with a request or a situation. I'll talk about it some with my parents, if they ask, but if not, I just shove it into the back of my mind and go do something else until I decompress and calm down again.
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